Striving to bring recognition to manufacturers of high-technology equipment the iXBT.com editorial team decided to institute three awards:

Reviewed by iXBT.com

The Reviewed by iXBT.com award recognizes the products, which have gone through the iXBT.com lab tests. This award is presented to a manufacturer of the products, which were tested in our lab, got reviewed, and their reviews are published on the iXBT.com web site, in the iXBT.com magazine, or on the Digit-Life.com web site.

Original Design

Modern IT market is flooded with clones. Life-cycle of a product became shorter, so most manufacturers do not spend their time and resources on their own designs. Instead, they often follow the so called «reference design», changing the name of the product and the package appearance. That's why in order to encourage efforts of the manufacturers who create innovative products different from reference designs, the editorial team of iXBT.com institutes the Original Design award.

This award can be honored to a product with an original design, which is essentially different from the reference design. The product must be tested in the iXBT.com lab and then have a review (concerning the test results) published on the iXBT.com web site, in the iXBT.com magazine, or on the Digit-Life.com web site.

The Original Design award can be selected only once a month and must provide links to the reviews of the awarded products.

3D Video Card Awards

A video card can be honored with the Original Design award, if the test results demonstrated the following distinctive features in comparison with the reference design:

• Original cooling system, more effective at the least possible level of noise.
• Support for extra features, such as Video-In (if it is not included into the reference design).
• Other things that are not listed here.

It goes without saying that, for example, a PCB color different from the reference design cannot be considered an innovation.

June 2004 Awards

Albatron GeForce FX 5700P Turbo 128MB

Prolink PixelView GeForce FX 5900XT Golden Limited

HIS Excalibur 9550

Barebone-kits/SFF PC Awards

A barebone-kit can be awarded with Original Design in exceptional cases, when its appearance and functionality is outstanding in its class. Such barebone-kit can generate a series of sequels or remain one of a kind. Below are examples of innovations deserving awards:

• Audio rack module that does not use [fully] computer resources.
• Non-typical data display with interesting and useful features.
• Tiny dimensions accompanied by decent functionality.

It's clear that barebone-kits cannot be considered originally designed in the sense of the word that we apply to, say, mainboards or video cards — all minicomputers are unique in their own way.

June 2004 Awards

Universal barebone-kit ASUS Terminator 2

Excellent Package

It's always pleasant to buy a product and find out that the package includes additional equipment, software, games, souvenirs, etc. It's nice to think that the product you bought is well worth its price, and it's twice as nice to buy a well-bundled product at a moderate price. In practice, some manufacturers tend to save on every item, even if the inclusion of this item into the product package raises the price by less than 10%. Thus, the editorial team of iXBT.com institutes the Excellent Package award to bring recognition to those manufacturers, who offer nice boxes with excellent package content (the product plus useful accessories) instead of featureless boxes with minimal package content (CD with drivers).

This award can be presented to a product with an original box and unique package content. The product must be tested in the iXBT.com lab, and the results of these tests must be published in a review on the iXBT.com web site, the iXBT.com magazine, or the Digit-Life.com web site.

The Excellent Package award can be selected only once a month and must refer to the awarded product reviews.

3D Video Cards Awards

A video card can be awarded with Excellent Package, if the tests demonstrated the following features distinguishing it from the other products on the market at that moment:

• Original package (retail).
• Rich software set, utilities and other homeware.
• Various bonuses: souvenirs or useful/nice knick-knacks.
• Other items, which are not listed here.

PowerColor RADEON X800 PRO Limited Edition

Leadtek WinFast A400 Ultra TDH

TV-Tuners and Multimedia Video Cards Awards

TV-tuner or a multimedia video card can be selected for the Excellent Package award based on these criteria:

• Original package (retail);
• Homeware with unique functionality;
• Rich set of extra software;
• Souvenirs or useful/nice knick-knacks in the package;
• Other items, which are not listed here.

Video combos HIS All-In-Wonder RADEON 9600 and 9600XT

Additional information

The same award cannot be givien to a product more than once.

A product can get several different awards.

Printed award certificates can be provided by written request via e-mail: pr@ixbt.com

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